2012-11 - New Zealand Police Association

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2012CONFERENCEIN BRIEFAll shook upConference delegates had a movingexperience at 12.42pm on Wednesday,October 17, as a magnitude 5.5 earthquakenear Taupo jolted the 16th floor of theJames Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel inWellington. They were in the middle ofimportant discussions too: changes toinsurance premiums on properties inChristchurch as a result of the Canterburyearthquakes. Nervous laughter all round.Action pointPolice Association director Wayne Aberhartgets 10 out of 10 for effectiveness. Duringa Q&A session with Police Minister AnneTolley on the first day of the conference,Wayne fired off a gripe to the ministerabout CIB officers who take home carswhen they are on call. Officers are toldthat unless they take home a liveried car,Police will be stung with a fringe benefittax. As Mr Aberhart pointed out, thatwas a bit tough – they weren’t using themto go shopping. Ms Tolley agreed andimmediately instructed her assistant tomake a note to look into the issue. Nowthat’s an efficient system.A spot ofbotherIn global economic terms New Zealandis a “pimple on the world’s bum” or a“rounding error in the world’s GDPaccount”, to paraphrase economist JohnYeabsley, but we still have a part to play inthe world money-go-round and if it startsmoving again, that will make it easier forNew Zealand to follow.Although our current high dollaris causing problems for exporters andde-leveraging (paying off debt insteadof spending) has “created holy hell withretailing”, the man from the New ZealandInstitute of Economic Research did offera speck of hope to delegates at the PoliceAssociation’s annual conference.Mr Yeabsley said the institute – amongthe most consistently accurate ofLatta day preacherConference delegates andPolice Association staff wereentertained by after-dinnerspeaker TV psychologistNigel Latta of Beyond theDarklands fame. Tongue-incheek,but with his fingerfirmly on the pulse of Police sensibilities,Latta delivered a wry commentary on howhe would change the Police Act. Suffice itto say, his amendments probably wouldn’tmake it too far, but his audience was institches over his suggestion of using aSection 36 power to bring down the fullforce of the law on anyone he, or the Police,didn’t like, especially if they were being“stupid” or “really annoying”.Kelly laughsThe Kellys were out in force at theconference, with New South Wales PoliceAssociation president Vince Kelly takingto the podium after New Zealand Councilof Trade Unions president Helen Kelly. Henoted that she had an excellent surnameand then went completely off topic byshowing delegates a compilation video ofpeople – and one or two dogs – falling offtreadmills. Watching others take a tumbleis shockingly funny (the Germans probablyhave a word for it), which provided somelight relief from the more serious businessof the day. Thanks, Vince.Economist John Yeabsleyforecasters, he reminded the conference– believed there was “room for a gentlerecovery in part driven by Christchurchspending” as it rebuilt after theearthquakes. He said Christchurch hotelsProfiling at its scariestWhen socialmedia specialistTom Reidy toldthe conferencehow personalinformation onFacebook can beingused by companiesto profile andtarget specificdemographicaudiences, he choseas an example a“45-year-old malefrom Invercargill, who likes Jim Beam andHolden Commodores”. He had unwittinglyprofiled delegate Sergeant Grant Gerken(pictured), also known for his snappy suits,who raised his hand and confessed, “That’sme!” The next day, Grant introducedhimself as, “Grant Gerken, 45-year-oldmale and soon-to-be non-Facebook userfrom Invercargill...”.International dialogueAssociation President Greg O’Connor isno stranger to doing back-to-back mediainterviews, but he said even he was leftfeeling a little inadequate when he learnedon the final day of the conference that hisSouth African counterpart, Mpho Kwinika,had overnight done five phone interviews...in five different languages. Impressive.were consistently full as workers pouredin to help recreate the city.However, the gloom of recessionstill blankets the public service as theGovernment considers how to keepservices going without spending moremoney.Mr Yeabsley said that carrying out suchbudgeting was incredibly challengingin the public sector because it consistedmainly of monopoly suppliers withno other like services to measure themagainst. “What’s the value for money?How do we measure it? There’s nothingto compare it to. The task is to cut out thestuff that’s going to reduce outputs theleast.”In terms of Police, Mr Yeabsley saidbetter policing needed smart people, butinevitably they would be more expensiveto retain in the future. “Finding thosepeople is always going to be hard and ifyou don’t find them, standards are goingto slip,” he warned.256 november 2012police news – the voice of police